


From Four Friends

by megastarstrike



Category: Mother 1 | EarthBound Zero | EarthBound Beginnings, Mother 3
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Friends being little shits, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 08:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18384401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megastarstrike/pseuds/megastarstrike
Summary: Ninten's friends adored him. They wouldn't be friends otherwise, after all. But when he was being this oblivious to his own feelings...Well, it was for his own good.---AKA Ninten's friends watch him be an idiot in love.





	From Four Friends

Once in a while, it was good to reflect on how you changed as a person and the motivators that drove that change to happen. Teddy wasn’t naive; he knew this was how life worked.

Take, for instance, his imperfect but steadily improving grades. He had Lloyd to thank for that, with their weekly tutor sessions and Lloyd’s unending patience as he explained Teddy couldn’t just punch the problems away. And in exchange, Teddy listened to every nonsensical rant Lloyd went on, nodding along and inserting his own commentary when he felt it was the right time. It was an exchange they were both pleased with.

The decrease in his detention numbers most likely had to do with Ana holding him back by the collar, never unwilling to keep his morality in check when she sensed he was about to do something extraordinarily stupid. On the other hand, Teddy spoke Ana’s feelings when she couldn’t. Speaking ill of your enemies wasn’t part of God’s will, but nothing was stopping one of her friends from doing so for her. It was a nice arrangement. He could confidently say some of those exchanges were the most fun he had in his entire life.

But most of all, Ninten was the main driving force behind much of the changes in his life. The first time they met two years ago, Teddy had challenged him to a fistfight in the hallway and tossed his shirt off in preparation. Ninten nonchalantly picked up the shirt, put it on, then took on a boxing stance that somehow dripped of sarcasm. And since then, they were good friends, and Teddy had grown close to the other people in his friend group.

Ninten had remained the same hot-blooded idiot he was two years ago, both being the first to throw a punch in a fight and being the first to step in to end one. Teddy supposed this was why he wasn’t too surprised when he approached him in the empty hallways after school holding an ice pack to his cheek and pulling his sleeve down to (badly) cover up a bruise.

Teddy frowned. He took in a sharp breath and said the only thing he knew how to say in this situation: “You don’t look too hot.”

Ninten chuckled, then winced at the resulting pain. “Yeah, nurse told me the same thing. My mom’s gonna kill me.”

“What happened?”

“Got into a fight with some asshole in math class today.”

“Did you win?”

“Asking the important questions, eh? But no, I don’t think anyone won.”

“I know I said I wouldn’t ever fight again or whatever,” Teddy said, “but if you need me to beat someone up, I’ll do it.”

“I appreciate it, but that’s not really necessary.” Ninten’s lips curled into a smirk. Never a good sign. “Besides, I don’t think he’ll try landing a punch on me ever again after what I did to—”

A fist collided with Ninten’s shoulder, sending him stumbling back into the lockers even though everyone present knew the punch hadn’t been nearly as hard as the hits during the earlier fight. An orange-haired boy the slightest bit taller than Ninten stood tall with crossed arms and a smug smile. Bruises littered his upper arm.

“What were you saying?” he sneered.

Ninten glared back, and Teddy readied himself for an explosion. “You say the stupidest shit sometimes, you know that?”

The other boy raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see how me calling baseball the inferior sport is stupid. It’s just an opinion.”

Oh. So  _ that’s _ what this was about. Leave it to Ninten to get so worked up about such a petty topic.

“Yeah, well, opinions can be stupid.”

“Like you?”

“Fuck you. Get out of here.”

Teddy watched the back-and-forth between the two, occasionally pulling Ninten away by the collar like a misbehaving puppy whenever he stepped too close in fighting range. As stupidly defensive as Ninten was at times, he had never seen him this angry over something as ridiculous as a sport. Either he was feeling particularly sensitive today, or this guy knew exactly which strings to pull and which buttons to push to get the reaction he wanted.

Judging by the lack of anger on the other boy’s face and the excitement behind his gaze, it was the latter. And honestly, Teddy could respect that.

So Teddy stuck his hand out in between them and cleared his throat. “The name’s Teddy. I’m Ninten’s friend. Nice to meet you.”

The two stared at him as if he had sprouted a head. Nevertheless, the boy shook the hand with a firm grip and hesitantly said, “I’m Claus. Nice to meet you, too.”

“So, Claus, you have any siblings? Friends?”

“Well, I have a twin brother named Lucas. And I guess I can call Ness and Fuel my friends.”

“How are your grades?”

“Pretty decent. All A’s so far.”

“Ah, that’s good.”

Their conversation continued with Teddy adopting the role of an overbearing mother and Claus awkwardly answering politely. It was one of the strangest conversations both of the two had since they stepped into the school, yet it continued until the twin brother Claus had mentioned arrived to drag him away, scolding him for getting into another fight.

“Not to say I’m not glad you didn’t end up punching anybody,” Ninten said with a frown, “but that’s the first time I’ve seen you actively try befriending someone. What’s up with that?”

Teddy shrugged. “He seemed like a decent guy.”

Ninten snorted.

“Oh, come on. It was like looking into a mirror. Sure, he’s an asshole on the outside, but you can tell he really does care for some people.” Teddy elbowed him. “You should know firsthand it takes a bit to break people out of their shells. And you’re the one who taught me to believe the best in people.”

“... You’re so cheesy,” Ninten said, pink lightly dusting his face. He scoffed and flicked the bill of his cap. “Whatever. Let’s just get home.”

Teddy followed with a smile.

 

* * *

Ever since Pippi had met Ninten when she was seven years old, she knew there was something funky surrounding his knack for telling emotions. He could discern what she was thinking and how she felt just by looking at her once, and she didn’t know how she felt about that, five years later.

But in this specific situation, Pippi felt annoyed and didn’t bother trying to hide it from Ninten’s seemingly psychic skills. She ignored Ninten’s worried glances.

“Where are we even going?” Pippi grumbled.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ninten grinned and tossed her his baseball bat. A few steps later, the two stood beside their park’s baseball field. In hindsight, it should’ve been obvious. He was even dressed in his baseball attire.

Baseball. They had a strange relationship. While Pippi refused to join the baseball team at her school on the basis that it wasn’t fun, her seven-year-old self bugged Ninten to take her to the park to play every day. Even now, the only time she enjoyed a sport was when she was either playing with Ninten or her other friends in the neighborhood.

Ninten stood at the pitcher’s mound with a bag of beaten up baseballs. He waited for Pippi to make her way to home base before flashing her a grin and asking, “Ready?”

Pippi dug her feet into the ground and smiled. “Ready.”

All they could do with only two people was practice pitching and hitting, but that was still mountains more fun than moping in her room. By the time the baseball bag had run empty, Pippi’s heart raced with exhilaration, and she laughed, her troubles left in the dust.

It was stupid worrying about her friends leaving her once they graduated middle school. Her lasting friendship with Ninten was proof of that.

Ninten retrieved his baseball bat back from her. “Now, can you help me find all the baseballs again? There were something like eight—”

“Seven,” came a voice, before a baseball rocketed in their direction. “Really, you should know better, shortstack.”

Ninten caught the baseball, but his grin had been replaced by a grumpier face Pippi knew was never a good sign. “Thanks, Claus,” he spat.

Claus shot him a smirk and shrugged.

“What are you even doing here?”

“This is… a public park. Any human can come here.”

Ninten snorted and rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you count as a human.”

“No, you.”

“You can’t just meme your way to victory in a verbal argument.”

“I can try.”

Pippi stood by, watching their back-and-forth argument like it was a tennis match. In all her years, she had never seen anyone so capable of riling Ninten up but not enough to trigger violence. It was admirable, really.

But that was just on the surface. When Pippi looked closer, Claus’s eyes occasionally flickered up and down, and his face was dusted a light pink. It was the same reaction her friend had when her crush had walked in on picture day or when her friend watched her crush on the football field. Which meant…

Pippi bit back a gasp. How could anyone have a crush on Ninten? He was the biggest loser she knew!

She supposed she couldn’t do much to sway whoever this was, seeing as how they haven’t even spoken (and that he had fallen for Ninten of all people). But what she  _ could _ do was sway Ninten’s opinion…

Hm…

Pippi snatched the baseball from Ninten’s hand and held it out to Claus with a smile. “Hey, stranger, I’m Pippi! Wanna play baseball with us?”

Both of them whirled around to her, Ninten shooting her a look of desperation and Claus’s expression changing from shocked to confused to reluctant in a matter of seconds.

“Sure…?” Claus eventually said. “I’m Claus, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. It’s not often Ninten actually makes friends.”

“Pippi, that’s mean,” Ninten whined. He swung his bat over his shoulders nonetheless. “Whatever. Pippi, you’re coming with me to home plate. Claus, you’re pitcher. At least, you will be once we find all these baseballs.”

That had been the worst game of her life, and she blamed that solely on the fact she was laughing too much from Claus and Ninten’s conversation to focus on the ball. After the game was over and Claus was long gone, she was still smiling.

Ninten elbowed her on their walk home. “What are you smiling about?”

“A shortstack is just two pancakes,” Pippi said, deep in thought. “If Claus called you a shortstack, does that mean he thinks you’re sweet?”

The process of Ninten digesting what exactly she said was evident on his face as it twisted from blank to frustrated to some shade of red. He half-heartedly swung at a giggling Pippi with his bat. “S-Shut up! No, it doesn’t mean that at all!”

“Okay, whatever you say.”

“I mean it. Pippi! Get back here!”

 

* * *

Lloyd couldn’t say he was too familiar with the concept of friendship. He hadn’t had any friends before Ninten had accidentally sent him flying out of the trash can and refused to believe his claims he felt fine, instead choosing to carry him to the infirmary to check for any injuries. Then he became more familiar with Ana, then met Teddy. One day, he became comfortable enough to call them his friends, and he was sure the same applied to them.

Lloyd watched the duo in front of him, pensive as he studied their interactions.

The robotics room was a calm place. A bunch of nerds working on robots together didn’t have very much potential for drama, even with someone as explosive as Claus on the team. Ninten’s occasional appearance didn’t prove too much of a problem either, as he was generally friendly to every member of the team. But adding them together was like hurling a bunch of gas on top of a wildfire—a bad idea.

“Hold this,” Claus murmured, handing something to Ninten before directing his attention to the arm of the robot.

Ninten took the arm. “Wow, you think you can just tell me what to do? News flash, asshole, you can’t.”

“You’re holding it right now.”

“I could drop it at any moment.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup.”

Ninten’s fingers tensed, then he carefully set the bolt on a nearby table. “There, I dropped it.”

Claus rolled his eyes. “Wow, such a rebel.”

“I know, right?”

It was a confusing scene. Claus would spit something mean at Ninten, then smile and link their hands. On the other side, Ninten followed up an insult by tucking a loose lock of hair behind Claus’s ear. Their words aimed to hurt, but their actions were completely different from their conversation.

It made Lloyd’s head spin. So after the robotics meeting when Claus had been picked up by his brother, he tapped Ninten on the shoulder and asked, “Is Claus your friend?”

Ninten sputtered at the sudden question. He looked around before finally relaxing and saying, “I mean… I guess so? It’s not like I hate him or anything. He doesn’t hate me either. At least, I don’t think so…”

“Teddy told me he doesn’t think so either.”

“You were talking with Teddy about—”

“It just came up for a second.” Lloyd paused. “So you two are friends?”

Ninten took a moment to think, then nodded. “Yeah. We’re friends.”

“And we’re friends too, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then why do you treat him so differently?” Then upon seeing Ninten flinch, Lloyd added, “Sorry if I’m annoying you. You don’t have to answer my questions.”

Ninten rushed to set a hand on his shoulder. “Man, I’m never annoyed by you. Ask any question you would like. I treat him differently because… that’s just how it is, I guess. That’s how our friendship works.”

“Is that why you two keep looking at each other up and down?”

Ninten sputtered, his face slowly turning red. He directed an incredulous stare at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

“... Is that something I shouldn’t have said?”

“No, it’s fine, it’s just…” He tugged his cap on tighter, an action Lloyd recognized as embarrassment. “I’ve gotta go. See you later, Lloyd.”

“Goodbye…?”

And with that, Ninten scurried out of the room as if he had just remembered he left the stove on, the sound of his feet pounding against the floor slowly fading. He seemed nervous, almost panicked.

Lloyd frowned.

_ Did I say something wrong? _

 

* * *

Ana had a complicated relationship with rumors. On one hand, rumors were inherently bad, and no one deserved to be spoken about in such rude ways behind their back. On the other hand, they brought her moments like this when she was staring at the subjects of the rumors herself and wasn’t sure who to believe.

Ninten had gathered his friend group out at a cafe together after school. Only her, Ninten, and another boy she had met today remained, the rest of their friends choosing to leave early due to other obligations. The cafe was quiet. The only sounds were the soft buzz of chatter and machines clinking in the background.

“Come on, Claus, admit it,” Ninten laughed. “You liked the muffin I recommended to you. I have good taste.”

“That could not be further from the truth,” Claus grumbled, as if the muffin wrapper wasn’t empty on the table.

Ana sat across from them, sipping at her bubble tea in thought.

Ninten had always been a touchy person. He greeted his friends with hugs and even just acquaintances with high-fives. This trait had been what solidified his friendship with Ana, as both of them needed physical affection to feel secure. However, in his friendship with Lloyd, Ninten had to build up a certain level of trust to even poke him on the shoulder without Lloyd jumping. Of course, he had accomplished that, but there was no denying the rocky beginnings a lot of Ninten’s friendships started out with.

Usually when a person wasn’t reciprocating Ninten’s touches, that meant they were uncomfortable, and Ana or one of their other friends had to signal to Ninten to dial it down. But this one was peculiar. Claus seemed content to allow him to press up against his side and initiate all kinds of physical contact, from playful pokes to holding hands, while not initiating anything himself.

Ana liked to think she knew Ninten better than most of the school, seeing as how she had known him for the longest. And no matter where she searched in her memory, she had no memory of him being this desperate for physical contact from anyone. It didn’t make sense.

… Unless she considered the rumors correct. Then it made  _ much _ more sense.

Then Ninten stood up from his seat with a buzzing phone in hand. “My dad’s calling. I’ll be back.” He stepped out of the cafe, the bells above the door ringing behind him.

Ana and Claus were left in awkward silence. The two hadn’t known each other long enough to determine what was best to say or if they should even make eye contact. So Ana went with the best option at her disposal.

“He’s cute, isn’t he?”

Claus’s gaze latched onto her face so quickly she was shocked his vision wasn’t blurry. He forced his face into a neutral expression. “Do you…”

“Me? Oh, no. Trust me, it wouldn’t work out.” Ana winked and lifted a finger from the table to point at him with. “But you on the other hand…”

“But I don’t—”

“He thinks the same of you. It’s pretty obvious.”

Claus stayed silent, squinting at her as if he wasn’t sure if he should trust her or not. Then, softly, he asked, “Does he really?”

“Honey, he has hearts in his eyes every time he looks at you. I’d be more surprised if he didn’t,” Ana said. She gave him a warm smile. “I know I just met you today, but I know him better than anyone else. Just go for it.”

Claus leveled a blank stare at her before sighing, defeated. “Am I really that transparent?”

“Yes.”

“... Fine. I’ll make the first move.” His eyes flickered to the cafe door. “But… thank you. Really.”

“No problem.”

When Claus looked back at Ana, he jumped at the sudden murder in her eyes. He glanced down at her death grip on her cup of bubble tea and gulped.

“I have faith in you,” Ana said, her glare intense, “but that’s my best friend. If you hurt him, the Lord will show you no mercy.”

While they both knew Ana would never resort to violence, her threat was very real (that and Claus would feel like he was disappointing Mr. Rogers if he dared disappoint Ana. Honestly, he didn’t know which was worse).

The murderous glint in Ana’s eyes disappeared when Ninten took his seat again. She offered him a sweet smile, internally laughing at Claus’s knowing look. “What did your dad call you for?”

“Just wanted to check up on me,” Ninten said. He leaned against Claus, and this time, Ana could clearly see the nervousness flickering in Claus’s eyes.

Well, that was her cue to leave. She stood up from her seat. “Sorry, but I have to go for something at church. I hope you understand.”

“That’s not a problem. Bye, Ana!”

“Bye, Ninten. And good luck, Claus.” With a final encouraging smile, she stepped out of the cafe and began walking home.

She didn’t need to turn around to know Claus had taken her advice.

 

* * *

“Mama, I’m home!” Ninten shouted as he opened the door to his house. He kicked his shoes off, his grip on Claus’s hand tightening when they entered the kitchen.

“Welcome back, darling,” his mother said. Then she turned around from the stove, and her face brightened upon seeing Claus. “Oh, you must be Ninten’s boyfriend! Welcome to our house.”

“... I’m sorry, what? I’ve literally never mentioned—”

His mother pinched Claus’s cheek, to which Claus couldn’t defend against. “Aw, you’re so much cuter than the others were saying!”

“Mama.”

“How would you like to stay for dinner? Did Ninten not invite you? I swear, that boy sometimes—”

“Mama!”

His mother turned her attention to him with a sweet smile. “Yes, dear?”

“How did you know he was my boyfriend?” Ninten asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned him to you.”

“Oh, Well, a couple months ago, there was that boy with the sharp sunglasses—Teddy, was it? He told me you met a new person and seemed to get along quite nicely with him. Then Pippi swung by a week later when you were staying late after school. Lloyd and Ana came by a few weeks ago on separate days. And I think that’s everyone.” She smiled and pinched his cheek, something that seemed to be her signature move. “They must be good friends to look out for you so much. Keep them close, Ninten, they’re doing you good.”

“Yeah,” Ninten said, thinking of various ways of how to best murder each friend. “They’re good friends.”

Claus fidgeted, uncomfortable and unsure of how to proceed. Luckily, Ninten’s mother turned her attention towards him and absolved him of the need to initiate anything himself.

She grinned and held out a hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Claus. I’m Carol, Ninten’s mother.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Claus said, shaking her hand and pretending like his own hand wasn’t shaking.

“And he’s so sweet! Ninten, how did  _ you _ get a boy as sweet as this?”

“Thanks, Mama,” Ninten grumbled. He stood aside, biting back laughter as his mother plopped mountains of affection onto an awkward Claus. He held his palms up and took a step back when Claus looked to him for help.

This was nice. Maybe his friends weren’t so bad after all.


End file.
